Opportunities
by ficscribbler
Summary: Missing scenes from "The Story of O2" that give both Jo and Zane a glimpse of possibilities for the future direction of their relationship.


**404 – Possibilities**

Summary: _Missing scenes from "The Story of O2" that give both Jo and Zane a glimpse of possibilities for the future direction of their relationship._

Disclaimer: _All rights to the concept and characters of the Eureka television series belong to its creators; no tangible profit is derived from the borrowing of the characters for this fan fiction. _

Spoilers: _Through Season 4, episode 4: "The Story of O2"_

_***Eureka***Eureka***Eureka***Eureka***Eureka***_

**Part I (From after the car crash to their arrival back at GD) **

As Andy pushed Jo's car away from the edge of the gulch and back onto the tarmac, Zane and Jo quickly recovered from their almost simultaneous bouts of unconsciousness. Zane, due to his larger body mass, was able to shake off the effects first; this gave him a few moments to observe the delectable Chief Lupo while she was processing the sequence of events. He'd been about to question the robotic deputy's singed condition when he realized she hadn't quite caught up, so he waited for the last of the fog to lift from his own mind as he watched Lupo frown in concentration. He was impressed, as always, with both her beauty and the speed with which she assimilated details and drew her conclusions. She might not be a scientific genius, but she was definitely a highly skilled professional.

Jo's brow creased as she connected the dots – her car had still been on the road, she'd fallen to the left as she passed out, probably pulling the steering column to the left as well. They'd been headed directly toward a sharp left curve in the road. If she could judge by the burned rubber trail on the roadway and the shoulder – a task she instantly performed as the robotic deputy maneuvered them far enough from the marks to see them from within the car – her foot must've come down on the gas pedal and increased their speed. At that velocity, the car should've raced straight over the verge and wrapped itself around two or three trees down in the ravine. Instead the car had spun almost completely around and stopped on the other side of the road just short of where the ground dropped into a gulch. Zane had been collapsed against her when she first regained her senses; the only rational explanation was that he'd reached across her and redirected their trajectory before he passed out. If he hadn't kept his wits about him –

Her breath caught and her body tensed as she swung her head to stare, wide-eyed, at him.

Zane blinked at the stricken look in her dark eyes, and felt something tighten in his gut… something that wanted to hug her, to shield her from the realization of their brush with death. Wait! This was Lupo, GD's fierce and fiery Enforcer! He'd never heard even a rumor that anyone had seen her shaken by anything Eureka had thrown at her. Even before she'd been hired to head up security, she'd refused to be rattled by any of the weird things that happened around here. So what was up with her lately? This was getting freaky.

"Are you alright?" she asked her voice huskier than usual, instinctively stretching one hand toward him to rest lightly, protectively, where the seat belt crossed his chest. "That should've snapped tight when we stopped so sharply."

Taken aback yet again by her apparently genuine concern for him – and how many times did that make today? – he cast her a lopsided grin. "I'm fine. I don't think we stopped abruptly enough to trigger the safety protocols."

She'd already drawn her hand back again, and was nodding as he spoke, having reached the same conclusion as she continued to analyze the event. "Right, or the safety foam would've deployed too," she said almost absently as she reviewed what Andy had told them. "Did he say combustible? Why would this area be highly combustible? It has to be tied into what happened to you and the crows – and whatever burned Andy's hand and forearm."

Zane twisted in his seat to study what little they could see of the Deputy Sheriff's damaged right arm as Andy gave one last push to align Jo's blue cruiser in the correct lane and then strolled from the front to the back of the car. "Yeah, Deacon's gonna want a look at him. He shouldn't be flammable. Whatever happened to him doesn't seem to have impaired his strength, though," he added as Andy effortlessly propelled the car along the tarmac.

"No," she agreed wryly, estimating that they were already moving at about 45 mph. Her lips curved up a little as she noted in the rearview mirror that the android continued to smile irrepressibly. "I think I like this version of him. He's certainly come in handy today." At this rate, they'd arrive safely back at GD in a relatively short time.

One of Zane's brows lofted. She _liked _the mechanical deputy? The Enforcer was admitting a favorable opinion about something? Of course Andy wasn't human; maybe she considered him to be a tool of her trade? He was a town law enforcement officer, not one of her GD goons, but she hadn't hesitated to co-opt his services for her own purposes. "Does Carter know you sorta borrowed him today?" he asked with a smirk.

"No, but he won't mind," she said with simple confidence.

"You sure about that? He may not approve of you using his deputy to save me from going back to the federal pen."

Jo rightly identified the note of curiosity in his tone again, and shrugged. "He's as willing to give you a chance as I am," she said matter-of-factly and then added smoothly, "Fargo, not so much. General Mansfield not at all. It'd be wise to be on your best behavior when we get back to GD; Mansfield's about this far" she held her hand up with virtually no space between her thumb and index finger, "from locking you up and throwing away the key. Do you think you can manage not to antagonize him any further? At least for today?"

He chuckled at her qualification. "Well, Mansfield's a pretty easy target, but… Yeah, Lupo; I guess I can behave myself at least for today." She grinned back, eyes twinkling, and he almost forgot to breathe. It took him a moment to realize she was talking, and another moment to catch up with what she'd already said. He was puzzled to find that she was updating him on what Andy and Henry Deacon had learned so far; it didn't seem like she was holding anything back. Now why would she trust him with so much information about an ongoing investigation that centered on his destruction of the Sky Cruiser?

"Also, Allison – Dr. Blake," she amended at his blank look, remembering that he'd still been fairly out of it when his blood samples had been taken, "Told me that you were really lucky." She went on to explain what Allison had reported about Zane's blood test results.

"So it was hypoxia?" he repeated, his posture straightening as his mind was engaged by the intriguing diagnosis. "That's why you asked me if I took Ramsey's TAP?"

"Yeah, about that." Jo turned to regard him with a rueful smile. "I think I kind of insulted Dr. Ramsey with some of the questions I asked him, and there wasn't time to coax more in depth answers from him, but I need to understand the danger. I think I get the basics, but would you explain it to me in more detail?"

Zane's brow creased. Lupo was asking him for help? Somewhere, hell must be freezing over. "Uh… yeah. I guess…"

He'd barely laid the groundwork when Andy stopped pushing the car and, startling the two occupants, let himself into the back seat. He settled back with his usual wide smile. "It is now safe to start the engine, Chief Lupo," the Deputy declared cheerfully.

Jo nodded, and only hesitated briefly before she turned the key in the ignition. When the car started without mishap she released a relieved breath and grinned over at Zane. "The things we take for granted, eh? Tell me more, please." The remainder of the drive back to GD was passed in discussion about the qualities and purposes of TAP.

By the time she parked in her reserved parking space, Zane was impressed anew with her acumen. While there was no doubt in his mind that she barely had a clue about the science behind TAP, she'd asked him for clarification on practical details that were pertinent to security issues. Oddly, he'd enjoyed the give and take, and – even more oddly – he was pretty sure she'd enjoyed it, too.

As he followed Lupo and the singed android through the nearest doorway, he scratched the back of his head. First she'd stood up for him against both the General and Director Fargo, then she'd let him go instead of handing him over, followed that up by inviting him to work with her to clear his name, and now he'd spent more time in congenial conversation with the Enforcer than with anyone else at GD – lady friends excepted, if flirty double-entendre even counted as conversation – since the day he'd arrived in Eureka. Could this day get any weirder?

"Eyes up, Zane, or do I need to tase you?" she called without looking back at him as she marched toward the robotics lab with Andy at her shoulder.

Zane jerked his admiring gaze from her trim body, startled. It didn't surprise him to find himself once again ogling her without conscious thought, but how did she always know? Well, there were still half a dozen hallways to traverse before he needed to deny himself the view he'd been enjoying.

As if she knew exactly what he was thinking, Jo looked back over her shoulder. "We need your head in the game, Zane – and don't forget that you promised to be on your best behavior," she warned.

"Right. Got it. 'No' to watching hot babes and 'yes' to good behavior," he smirked as he met her gaze, and then deliberately looked her over with an appreciative leer. "I don't know, Lupo; that's a lot to ask of a guy. Would you settle for just the good behavior?"

She sighed and rolled her eyes; Zane's grin widened.

At least this time she hadn't tased him. Things were definitely looking up.

_***Eureka***Eureka***Eureka***Eureka***Eureka***_

**Part II** **(Enroute from the lab to Café Diem to talk to Kevin)**

"Hey, I didn't do anything!" Zane objected, resisting without success as the Enforcer marched him down a hall toward the nearest exit. She'd clamped one of those little hands onto his arm and yanked him right out of the lab without an explanation, and despite his superior height and bulk, he couldn't twist free. He glared wistfully back over his shoulder to where some of the best minds at Global Dynamics were brainstorming how to solve the problem, other than the obvious use of the self-destruct feature on the home-bound rockets. It wasn't often he was on the resolution side of Eureka's almost daily mishaps. Usually by this point Lupo had tossed him behind bars. He was more capable of finding a solution than most of the scientists they'd left behind in the lab, there wasn't a whole lot of time left to iron out whatever they came up with, and his arch-nemesis was making him miss all the fun! "Come on, Lupo! What'd you haul me out of there for?"

"You're kidding, right?" she said in surprise, giving him a sideways frown as she extracted her key chain from her pocket with her free hand. At his blank look, she sighed. "Come on, genius, keep up here! First of all, the General is still ticked at you. Leaving you and your cocky attitude and smart mouth in that room with him is a recipe for disaster."

It took only a second for him to admit to himself that she was making sense. The lanky scientist stopped resisting their forward motion and grinned without an ounce of remorse. "Yeah, I'll give you that one," he admitted as he walked beside her instead of dragging against the momentum. He waited curiously; she'd said 'first of all', so what else was she thinking?

"Second," Jo continued as she moved a step ahead of him and shouldered through the exit they'd just reached, simultaneously sorting through the various objects on her key ring to find her car key, "You're the one who noticed the TAP fluid would make good rocket fuel. You clued everyone in to check the rocket plumes for evidence of the TAP in the propulsion systems," she paused mid-step and glanced up at him with a questioning lift to one brow to see if she'd used the correct terminology. He nodded, so she continued, "And I need someone with your knowledge along to talk the science stuff to Kevin."

He shrugged and conceded grudgingly, "Again, probably right." They needed to know exactly what Kevin had done so they could prepare proper measures to counteract the TAP, and it would save precious time if she had someone along who could understand and communicate the details better than she could. He moved away from her to circle to his own side of her blue sedan. "But half the people watching that race at Vince's could probably 'talk the science stuff' to Kevin, too."

She slid into the driver's seat, ignored his deliberate mimicry of her phrase, and said dryly, "Maybe, but who better to talk to a thirteen year old boy that just committed his first screw-up than someone with your history as a screw-up?"

Zane couldn't help laughing. "Good point." He watched with genuine appreciation as she left the GD parking lot behind and picked up speed on the road back to GD. He'd always been impressed with the skill she exhibited behind a wheel. "So if you dragged me along to talk to him, does that mean you're not going in with both guns blazing?" he asked.

She flashed him a startled look. "What? No! He's just a kid, Zane!"

"Well, you're not called The Enforcer for nothing, Lupo," he retorted. "You don't usually pull your punches, regardless of gender, age or physical condition. I've never known you to show any sign of mercy even when you're not sure someone's guilty. At least," he added reflectively, "not until today."

She was silent for a long moment. When she spoke again, her voice was smokier than usual, and oddly strained. "Yeah, well… maybe that needs to change. Innocent until proven guilty and due process, right? Maybe… maybe I've kind of forgotten that with all the craziness that happens around here."

Zane gaped at her, but she kept her eyes on the road. What, no immediate retort about how felons like him didn't deserve a break? No wisecrack about the fact that infantile behavior at his age didn't merit any consideration? Was that an admission that she'd treated him unfairly?

Her gaze flickered to him and away again. "Am I… unfair?" she asked quietly, and waited for his answer with bated breath.

He blinked and wondered if she'd read his mind – and if he was losing his, given that he was finding her hesitant uncertainty very, _very_ hot. Josefina Lupo, insecure? Couldn't be! What game was she playing with him now? And how could she ask _him_, of all people, whether she'd been unfair? With growing indignation, he snorted. "You and I both know 'fair' isn't one of your concerns, Lupo."

His ire faded as he saw how hard she swallowed, and how white her knuckles had gone on the steering wheel before she flicked another glance at him. Was that… _pain_?

"Like I said," she rasped quietly, "Maybe that needs to change."

He faced forward, totally flabbergasted, and folded his arms over his chest. This conversation was flat-out weird! "Yeah, well… I'll believe it when I see it," he finally grunted.

She was quiet for a couple miles, and he wondered if he'd ruined the semi-truce that seemed to have been in effect all day. Not that he cared, because his continual confrontations with the Enforcer were all that made life in Eureka bearable. While today had been an intriguing change from their usual highly-charged relationship, if she went back to slapping on the cuffs tomorrow, he wouldn't mind… much. Still, if he pushed her too far he'd end up missing the resolution of today's crisis. Zane glanced discreetly at her and was relieved to see that she didn't look angry.

Hmm… angry? Could her weird behavior today have anything to do with the rage incident that had shaken GD only last week?

"_Don't tempt me." _Those three words, uttered by Lupo with her mouth a scant two inches from his, were the most vivid of his recollections from being under the influence of Parrish's malfunctioning invention. Zane considered himself to be a fairly easy-going guy, and he didn't like the memory of the fury that had coursed through him. He hadn't hurt anyone, but he very easily could have if Lupo hadn't cornered him and hauled him back to the infirmary.

Lupo had been gorgeously ferocious, seemingly on the verge of exploding… but she hadn't. She'd been exposed at the same time as he, Parrish, Fargo and a couple other lab techs, and although she'd looked like death warmed over from the strain of controlling her anger, she'd managed to perform her duties. Eerily, Lupo had been so self-disciplined that when she'd known she was about to lose it, she'd secured herself to bolted-down machinery with her own handcuffs to prevent herself from harming anyone else. Beneath the cuffs of her blouse sleeves, he could see the fading bruises that still marred the skin on her wrists.

Was she second guessing herself because of how close she'd come to losing her legendary control? Could re-evaluating herself be the reason why she was also re-evaluating him, giving him breaks she wouldn't ordinarily consider? If so, he hoped she got over it sooner rather than later. It was creeping him out big time.

Jo glanced at him from the corner of her eye, sorry to be the source of the defensive slouch and the mulish expression that had settled on his handsome features because of the unfair treatment he'd received since coming to Eureka. It was clearly going to take time and careful work to undo the damage other-Jo had caused, especially if he really believed that she was wasting her time. Then again, he'd come back today, hadn't he?

She cleared her throat. They were on the main street now, only minutes from Café Diem; it was time to focus on the task at hand. "So… one screw-up to another… what do you think will be the best way to approach a thirteen year old boy who's about to join our screw-up club?"

Zane choked back a laugh at her droll tone, startled out of his sulk by her inclusion of herself as a screw-up. Was there to be no end to the surprises from her today? "Well, we could try asking him straight up what he did, give him the chance to explain," he suggested.

"Okay. That's the plan then," Jo agreed, and pulled into the open space nearest Vincent's. "Let's bring Kevin outside to talk with him."

Zane nodded, unbuckling his seatbelt and unlocking the door. "I'll go get him," he offered. "It'll attract less attention than you going after him. You might take off the jacket, too. Less intimidating to the kid if you look a bit less like the official Enforcer and a bit more like…" he hesitated, remembering that flash of hurt from before.

"Like a human being?" Jo filled in tonelessly, her face turned away as she repeated his chiding words to her on Founder's Day.

Zane shrugged uncomfortably. "Well, you know… if the shoe fits." He exited the car and loped toward the crowded restaurant.

Jo sighed and rubbed her forehead. She definitely had a headache. Slowly she shut off the engine, opened the door, eased out of the driver seat and straightened up. This day was really taking it out of her. Of course lately, every day was taking a lot out of her. Maybe once today's crisis was resolved they'd catch a break and things would settle down a little.

Wearily she shrugged off her suit jacket and tossed it into the back seat. She was so not looking forward to this interview with Allison's son. The only good thing was that the day couldn't possibly get any worse once she'd gotten past this.

_***Eureka***Eureka***Eureka***Eureka***Eureka***_

**Part III** **(After Jo tells Larry his rocket hit her house)**

4020 Coriolis Loop.

Jo wasn't the only one who froze when Fargo reluctantly stated the residential address that had taken the full brunt of Larry's rocket landing. Zane knew her address as well as he knew his own.

All of a sudden, he wasn't so amused at the thought of the chaos that was bound to follow the impact. He held his breath and watched her expression: shock, followed swiftly by resignation, and then by outrage. Larry blanched at the fast-rising anger displayed by the Enforcer, a tight-lipped response Zane had good reason to be familiar with.

In this instance, she didn't immediately slam Larry to the nearest hard surface and slap cuffs on him as she'd frequently done to Zane, or draw her taser and blast him – both of which Larry would have fully deserved. Instead, she turned away and let Fargo undertake the task of suitably chastising his assistant. To his credit, the Director reamed Larry out for his flagrant violation of the rules and the resulting disaster, all at the top of his lungs, including a broad range of retaliatory restrictions.

Zane tuned out the Director's high-pitched harangue and watched as Lupo shrugged off Dr. Blake and Henry Deacon's sympathy; she turned a shoulder to her friends, waving them off as she matter-of-factly phoned in the orders that sent the GD and Eureka emergency response teams to her address. With the same coiled tension she'd exhibited earlier outside Zane's cell, she paced back and forth between banks of lab equipment while she organized the impact site containment, retrieval and cleanup by half a dozen departments.

When she finished and looked up from her cell phone, she saw that Zane was so close that she could easily have touched him; he was watching her with concern.

For a brief moment she leaned toward him as if she yearned to seek shelter in his arms, and she looked so tired, so defeated, so in need of a knight in shining armor, that he would've willingly embraced her. But even as he instinctively prepared to reach out to her, Lupo's gaze darted left and right as if she'd recollected where she was, and maybe who she was, and then it was like watching a wall come down across her face. The whole thing happened so rapidly that if Zane had blinked he'd have missed it. In fact, if it weren't for his perfect recall, he might've believed he'd only imagined it, because she was now the cool, aloof Enforcer again.

"Let's get moving, people," she ordered, rounding on the personnel still milling about in the room. "We have a lot to clean up here, too, not just in town. Snap to it!"

Zane moved out with everyone else, returning to Parrish's lab and his assigned tasks. Nothing he was working on was difficult or challenging enough to require real attention, though, so he was free to ponder the various freakish elements of the most bizarre day he'd ever experienced.

It wasn't just Lupo that had his thoughts spinning. Now that his mind was fully clear of the TAP-sourced oxygen, he had no trouble replaying and reviewing the day's events with a clarity he'd not possessed earlier. Henry Deacon, with whom he'd rarely crossed paths until today, had treated him like a respected colleague. Dr. Blake had continued digging until she found the anomalies in his blood that exonerated him from responsibility for the SkyCruiser crash. Naturally Director Fargo had been rabidly angry with him, which Zane couldn't blame him for this time. Zane, too, mourned the tragic loss of the prototype. But the Director had inexplicably sided with Lupo, helped shield him from arrest, and included Zane in the efforts to solve the issues. In addition, based on the not-so-discreet whispers he'd overheard throughout the day, it wasn't only Lupo but also Fargo that had openly argued with General Mansfield on Zane's behalf at least once.

Yeah, it was likely that each of the others had only stepped up to support Lupo, but for whatever reason, they'd each gone the extra mile instead of being content to blame everything on GD's bad boy genius, as Fargo had apparently labeled him. There'd been plenty of times in the last couple years when he'd been held liable for the crisis of the day based solely on circumstantial evidence, even when he'd had an alibi. So why had today been any different?

What was going on with the Enforcer that had her softening toward not only him but everyone else too? She'd been amazingly good with young Kevin, and she hadn't scorched the boy's mother with scathing condemnation, either. She'd even exercised restraint with that idiot Larry!

She couldn't confound him more if she'd actually tried.

Wait a minute. Could that be it? Could Lupo be messing with his brain on purpose? He ran a hand through his hair and glared down at the unoffending test tubes he was currently filling. She'd done it to him before – not that he'd ever proven it beyond the shadow of a doubt. Nonetheless, while she might not have a genius IQ, Zane suspected that Josefina Lupo was a tactical mastermind.

To alleviate his constant boredom, Zane had carried out all sorts of mischief and mayhem-causing stunts designed to entertain him while simultaneously annoying others. Many of his coworkers had fallen prey to his brand of humor, but he was particularly fond of provoking the Enforcer. She'd never given him the satisfaction of losing control, but he'd butted heads with her enough to recognize when she was truly furious with him beneath her icy façade as she restrained him, tased him, revoked his lab privileges – or, on several occasions, did all three.

Of course if you were a prankster you had to expect colleagues to prank you back; usually Zane had no trouble tracing the culprits, particularly since he was well aware of whom he'd zinged first… but there had been several times when he hadn't been able to identify the source of a retaliatory strike. Only after the fourth such mystery had he made the connection: each incident had been after one of his more outrageous instances of monkey business – literal monkey business that had cost hours of GD Security manpower to catch released lab animals and hours more of paperwork.

Although he'd never been able to verify it, he was positive that Lupo had rigged the simple but ingenious booby-traps that had stymied him. He'd never found any trace to prove her involvement in successive incidents, either. However, he noticed a certain smug upturn to her lovely lips that only appeared after he'd fallen prey to that particular anonymous nemesis. The situation had given him a grudging respect for her strategic skills. She was a worthy opponent, and given their history he wouldn't put it past her to suddenly change her outward attitude toward him simply because she knew it would drive him crazy trying to figure out what she was up to.

After all, wishful thinking aside, the idea that Lupo was softening toward him after all this time wasn't likely. But as a reverse psychology tactic? That would explain her uncharacteristic gibberish about how he didn't have to be "that guy" – and a woman who took law enforcement as seriously as Lupo did, letting him escape from GD's high security cell? Security Chief Josefina Lupo would never do such a thing. Nor would she invite him to ride along with her while she investigated what was delaying Deputy Andy. And her saying he was a decent guy beneath his snarky posturing? She dismissed his whole rebel image as _snarky posturing_? She'd even pretended that she was interested in the feelings he'd almost told her about.

Admittedly, the whole thing had gotten under his skin, and maybe that was what she'd been aiming for all along. After all, if they hadn't driven through that over-oxygenated zone and passed out, he'd have come right out and told her about the crazy thoughts he sometimes had… He'd have admitted that he'd be glad if he turned out to be right those times when he entertained the notion that she might not feel only the disdain with which she'd outwardly regarded him since that disastrous first week in Eureka, that he wouldn't mind if they moved past the sniping they'd engaged in for so long and tried out being friends instead… or that he'd like being more than friends with her. Maybe the little he'd said before getting dizzy had been enough to clue her in to what he was going to say?

Zane curled his lip. No, she couldn't have guessed any of that irrational nonsense from the little he'd said before passing out.

Besides, she'd already been acting weird before he'd almost made a fool of himself.

No, it was definitely more likely that the vulnerability he'd glimpsed all day today was a deliberate ploy to see how he'd react, another step in some plot to humiliate him or pay him back for his constant bucking of authority. Could she be that devious?

If so, then that look on her face when he'd called her "JoJo" could be part and parcel of such a plan. It might've been another deliberate "slip" to make him think he was gaining some kind of insight about her. But what had she meant to reveal? He'd never seen that expression on her face before, and although at the moment he'd thought the nickname appalled her, now as he summoned his mental image of that moment… well, he wasn't so sure.

He'd have to use "JoJo" a few more times and see what came of it. If nothing else, it would probably get a rise out of her, and that was always fun even if he ended up tased and back in a cell for a couple hours.

With that minor decision made, he returned to the larger issue. Lupo had such a deep military history that it would be foolish not to at least consider the possibility that psychological warfare was a viable strategy for an ex-special forces officer.

Zane's brow creased, and his hands stilled as he considered which of his two theories was more likely. Either one had intriguing possibilities. On one hand, If Lupo really was softening toward him, which, if he were honest with himself, was the concept he preferred… maybe she'd finally agree to a date. And if, on the other hand, she really was upping the ante to a more cerebral form of battle, well, then they'd find out whether military tactical training could trump his scientific genius.

Whichever it turned out to be, she'd definitely caught his attention.

This situation with her house, though, this couldn't be part of any mental games she might've cooked up for him. Losing her house was wholly personal and wholly devastating. She'd covered it up pretty quickly, and so smoothly that it left him wondering what other emotions she'd been concealing behind that killer hot Enforcer personality all this time. Zane could see where such a skill would be useful in her line of work, but if she was as good at donning a mask as she was at pulling pranks, then it was long past time he looked beyond outward appearances.

For instance, for all the trouble he'd gotten into since coming to Eureka, today was the first time he'd actually been accused of anything that warranted his being tossed back to the Feds. She'd mentioned that factor when he'd asked her why she wasn't busting his ass; _this time_, she'd said, they were going to send him back to the federal pen. And in response to a genuine threat to his freedom, she'd come down squarely on his side despite the circumstances and history against him.

Did that mean she'd always been on his side? Had she always believed there was a decent guy beneath his so-called snarky posturing? Was that why she rode him so hard all the time, because she thought he was capable of more? Had she hidden this positive opinion of him behind her aloof Enforcer persona, like she'd hidden her emotion about losing her home? It was an intriguing possibility, and it fit with his preferred theory, that she was softening toward him.

How could he test such either of his theories? It wasn't like he could come right out and ask her. "Hey, Lupo, have you always secretly thought I'm a decent guy, or are you just playing mind games with me?" Yeah, that'd go over real well. He'd have to devise a subtle method of investigation so she wouldn't suspect. It didn't have to be complex; it could be as simple as watching how she reacted to one or two good-will gestures, and being extra cautious in his interactions with her until he'd figured it out.

Losing her house, now that could provide him with an opportunity to offer an olive branch and see what she did with it. She'd need to replace pretty much everything she owned, and he had something that could be helpful. She'd never charged him with the offense, so he was pretty sure she didn't know he'd hacked her personal data pad when she'd left it in her office while responding to the crisis-of-the-day not too long ago. Although maybe she did know, since she'd recently stopped bringing it with her to GD. If her computer had been at the house when Larry's rocket hit, he could use that hacked copy … if he was very, _very_ careful how he presented it to her. No need to tip her off to what he'd done if she didn't already know. How she responded would tell him a lot.

A few more minutes was all it took to work out the parameters of his personal project, and within half an hour he was content that he'd debugged the possible negative ramifications. It was reasonable; he could get away with it. If nothing else, he would at least have paid her back a smidge for her efforts on his behalf today. Once he'd settled it in his mind, Zane grinned in anticipation and focused on the GD project on his workbench until it was time to put his plan into action.

_***Eureka***Eureka***Eureka***Eureka***Eureka***_

**Part IV** **(Before the final scene where Jo is settling down in a cell)**

Jo stared at the smoking ruins of her the house that had been her home since she'd arrived in Eureka a lifetime ago. She wouldn't be able to troll through the remains for anything salvageable for at least a day or two; the foam would need to be cleaned away first. But it didn't look promising. Larry's rocket had smashed all the way through to the basement and, according to Henry, set off both natural gas and electrical fires that combined with the fireball from the rocket itself. Eureka's Mayor and jack-of-all-trades had regretfully warned her that the resulting heat had been powerful enough to incinerate everything.

That meant that the gym bag and the overnight case she'd kept in the trunk of her cruiser contained the sum total of her remaining belongings. It was seriously discouraging, like playing 'Mother May I' with her brothers: for every baby step forward they'd ever allowed her to take, there'd always been at least one giant step backward. She'd never been able to get ahead in that game, no matter how hard she tried. She'd always preferred playing 'Red Light Green Light', where she was the one in control of her forward momentum and had much better odds of winning.

Weird. Why was she thinking about children's games when she ought to be figuring out what to do next? Jo gave herself a mental shake. She couldn't permit the loss of a few possessions to throw her into a funk, not when she needed to be at the top of her game to handle her job in this new timeline. Besides, it wasn't as if she hadn't spent a good portion of her life before Eureka carrying everything she owned on her back. In the scope of things, she was in good shape. She had really good friends, a kick-ass job, a really nifty car, an amazing salary that would make it easy to replace the household things and clothes that had gone up in flames… but it still hurt.

She sighed as she realized her internal lecture hadn't done anything to remedy that empty feeling in the pit of her stomach. "Suck it up, Lupo. You're getting soft," she growled to herself as she stood on the sidewalk and stared balefully at the disaster that was her former home.

"Ahem."

She spun around. "Zane." He was leaning casually on the hood of her car a few feet away, his hands jammed in his pockets. "What are you doing here?"

He shrugged. "You may not believe this, Lupo… but I wanted to say I was sorry about your house. Mine caught fire once, too. It's tough to lose so much in one fell swoop."

Remembering when he'd told her – well, her Zane had told her – about how his first childhood home had caught fire after a boarder fell asleep while his dinner was in the oven, Jo moved to perch beside him and absently pressed a sympathetic hand to his arm. "Yeah, baseball cards mean the world to five year old boys," she agreed, eyes returning to the foam-filled crater before them.

Zane blinked, startled. He knew the contents of his own personnel file backwards and forwards – he'd occasionally deleted or added details just to confound certain authorities – and there'd never been a single version that mentioned how distraught he'd been to lose that collection of baseball cards, not even GD's original ultra-thorough background report.

The only way Lupo could know about it was if she or Carter had been talking to his mother again, which meant she'd be worried about whether he'd gotten himself into a new scrape.

Twisting to bawl Lupo out for perpetrating such a crass impertinence as unnecessarily worrying his mother, his outrage faded at the sight of the melancholy posture of the usually indomitable woman. Right, she'd just lost her house – and he had a test to perform, one that didn't include antagonizing her. He'd just call his mom tonight to reassure her, and sort out how Lupo had such specific information at the tip of her tongue some other time. "So, uh, Lupo… it occurred to me that you might be in the market for a little good news."

She straightened and summoned a smile. "Good news? Larry's been fired?" she quipped.

He chuckled. "Sorry, no. But just as good, maybe." He withdrew his right hand from his pocket and reached toward her, palm up. "I brought this for you."

Jo stared at the small data pad cupped in his hand and asked, "What is it?"

"It's a copy of files that I found segregated on the GD mainframe with other files that didn't have the usual GD encryption protocols. You remember, you assigned me to go through the slush files?" One of the many mindless tasks she'd punished him with after he'd released a dozen rabbits from Lab 20 into the vent system six weeks ago. Her eyes didn't darken at the reminder of his mischief, though, and she didn't tense up at the reference, or smirk at the recollection of the penalty to which she'd subjected him. Nor did she rub it in that he'd had to spend four whole working days on the task. She simply waited curiously for him to continue. Okay, that was… weird. He cleared his throat and said, "I traced the path back, and it looks like this it's yours. I figure you probably left your notebook logged in while you were out of your office handling one of the usual code reds, and the system copied it during the regularly scheduled backup."

She'd straightened as he spoke, but not in offense or anger. She carefully plucked the little device from his hand, turning it over in her fingers. Tamping down her hope, lest she be disappointed yet again, her smoky voice still cracked a little more than usual as she asked, "So this has all of my personal files on it?"

He relaxed a little at her apparent acceptance of his story without so much as a suspicious glare. "Yeah. Near as I can tell, there's photos, email, music, stuff like that. It wasn't worth mentioning before, but," he shrugged again and motioned to the rubble. "Y'know… burning homes… got me thinking about things that go up in the flames, and that kinda brought the data dump to mind. So… here I am. And here it is." He cleared his throat and avoided her now-glistening gaze. No way could she be faking how much this meant to her. This little game of his was a bit harder than he'd expected.

Jo stared up at him, closing her fingers around the priceless gift and swallowing hard. Maybe she'd been right after all. Maybe there really was a decent guy somewhere deep beneath that snarky attitude, as she'd hoped. Maybe he was still her Zane after all. "Thanks, Zane."

He shrugged uncomfortably. "No problem." If he didn't know better, he'd think the Enforcer was about to cry! "I, uh, better get going. Never keep a lady waiting, right?" he straightened with a grin.

Her expression closed off. "Playing doctorate again?" she asked tightly.

For the first time since he'd flown the SkyCruiser to the launch site this morning, he had the distinct feeling he was in danger of being tased. Zane walked backwards toward his motorcycle, keeping an eye on her as he laughed, "Yeah, well, since I never managed to graduate anywhere, it's the most likely way to get a doctorate." But instead of firing back with one of her usual snide comebacks, Jo looked down. Was that disappointment? Was it possible that she really did think he had it in him to be more than a screw-up? This was the second time tonight she'd passed up a chance to rebuke him. Maybe he'd been too subtle about his test of her reactions? Maybe he hadn't made it clear enough that he'd opened her files, that he'd accessed her personal content?

Still moving backwards toward his ride, he prodded, "By the way, Lupo, when I was checking the content of the files, it was ridiculously easy to crack your passwords. You should really change them."

She didn't look up. "Yeah, I'll do that. Thanks, Zane."

He stopped in his tracks, took a step back towards her. "Lupo. Seriously. Are you okay?"

Jo finally looked up. Her brow creased a little. "Yeah, I'm fine. Why?"

"I just told you I broke into your personal files and you _thanked _me!"

"Ah." Right. That would probably have pissed other-Jo off big time. Jo scrambled for a response, and all she could come up with was, "Well, that's what you were supposed to do." She'd been studying up like crazy to familiarize herself with all the measures designed to keep GD secure, and that data dump was a regularly scheduled security process, assigned to different personnel each month, none of whom liked the tedious task if she could judge from the reports they filed, but the task was fairly clear-cut. "You have to break encryptions on unknown files to identify the content, right? I can hardly object to you doing your job, can I?"

He nodded in acknowledgment of her practical reasoning, but couldn't shake the feeling that there was something else going on behind those beautiful eyes. "Okay then… I'd better get going. See you around, Lupo." Maybe tonight hadn't been a good time to run his first test; losing her house could be the reason she was off. Of course she'd been off all day. He'd have to think some more about this.

Jo watched him cross the remaining distance to his bike; she'd always liked that easy lope of his. Her Zane had been surprisingly fit for a geek, and this Zane was apparently even more athletically inclined. Too bad she was no longer the lucky one receiving the benefits of his physique. Bleakly she watched him mount the motorcycle, key the ignition and ride off, weaving easily through the many emergency vehicles still blocking the street.

Another date. He had another date. Startled by a pinch in her palm, she looked down and loosened her fist as she remembered she was holding the data pad; its edges had cut into her skin as she clenched her hands. Well, at least he'd come to give her this… before he went out with another woman. It was progress; it meant there were still possibilities for their future, didn't it? That was a good thing, right?

Jo sighed and glanced in the direction Zane had gone. Maybe tomorrow she'd be able to work up some enthusiasm about it, but right now nothing was looking particularly good.

A touch on her shoulder drew her attention, and she turned to find Fargo extending a data pad. "Sign this, and they'll start on the clean up. The architect will be in touch with you first thing tomorrow morning to discuss any layout you want, and GD will cover anything that the insurance company doesn't." He smiled anxiously at her as she signed the pad with his digital pen. "I'm really sorry, Jo."

She summoned another smile to ease her friend's concern. "Hey, it's only a house, right?"

He accepted the data pad back with a frown. "It was your home, Jo. That's a big deal. You can stay at the bed and breakfast until your new house is ready," he suggested, and gave her a conspiratorial grin as he added, "Larry can foot the bill, personally."

She grinned back, her eyes twinkling briefly too, but she shook her head. "I appreciate the offer, Fargo, but I don't want to go anywhere near where Beverly Barlow used to live. I'm just going to bunk down at the Sheriff's office." He started to object, and she insisted, "It's not like I haven't spent plenty of nights there before, and it has everything I need."

Fargo clearly didn't like it, but he knew that tone. "Okay, fine. But I'm going to put everything on fast track for your house, Jo. I promise you won't be at the jail for long."

Jo smiled, appreciating the effort he was devoting to making things right for her. "Thanks. I guess I'll go settle in. See you tomorrow, Fargo." She extracted her keys from her pocket and strolled toward the driver's side door as she called over her shoulder, "Don't stay out here all night fussing at the workers. The mess will still be here tomorrow."

"Yeah, okay, I get it. I won't make them stay all night. G'night, Jo." She was too stubborn for her own good. Fargo really didn't like the idea of her living at the jail, not even temporarily. After all, she was having a tough enough time without having to spend more time where Donovan had proposed to her and she'd frozen instead of saying 'yes'. Besides, Carter would never approve of Jo camping out in his jail cell.

Carter. Wasn't he due back tonight from visiting Zoey? He'd better call the Sheriff and give him a heads up about what had happened today. He'd be interested to know how well Zane had performed today – although it wouldn't surprise him any more than it had surprised Jo – and the Sheriff would know just what to say and do in order to help Jo.

_***Eureka***Eureka***Eureka***Eureka***Eureka***_


End file.
